Message in a Bottle - The beginning

Welcomes me hardies, we have just taken command of Pigeon Island after a very adventurous 10 days on the high seas, Pigeon Island is in the Northern Group of the Abrolhos Islands where the fish are plentiful and the moon light caresses the sparkling ocean creating a jewel effect, "Black Diamonds" is our treasure, I am in awe at the beauty of the sunsets out here on the open water and the full moon is just magnificent.

My role on the much loved "Magic" is fondly known as the "Buxom Wench" to the fearless "Captain Ganghook", who is often seen on the Sugar Scoop of his Galleon cleaning the plentiful fish caught by his Buxom Wench, he has almost mastered the art of a very useful tool (so I am told) being the fish scaler.

We set sail from Dongara to Post Office Island a couple of weeks ago, however on route the weather predicted our course and we were forced to go to Geraldton, which is a 45 min drive from Dongara, the sail took us 18 hours, we were rained on wind swept, battered and beaten about then arrived at the Geraldton Fairway which is lit up like a Christmas tree, it looked fantastic with all the Port & Starboard Markers , then as we approached the marina a most friendly Dolphin escorted us into our pen. The weather was dreadful and our moods were also very frayed, we tired up, showered and slept. After a very fast feed of Tin Sausages and Vegies. Yummy.

We spent a couple of days in Geraldton attending to business then made our way out to the illusive Post Office Island, we had a great sail, the sun was shining, the breeze was terrific and that is the day I fell in love with Sailing, incidentally we were also escorted out of the marina by our friendly Dolphin. Apron approaching the Southern Group of the Abrolhos Islands there was some very intensive navigating to be had, we nudged our way through 3 meters of water heading for a mooring buoy then backed away again being a little too shy of water. We proceeded further into the islands and set anchor for the night at a little island called Coordination Athol,which was a mile away from Post Office Island, we dinghied across to PO Island for a walk then set sail once again for the Eastern Group of Islands we moored at Morley Island that was has a very pleasant sandy beach. There is a very large population of bird life and the coral fish were unreal the colours were so bright. We caught a couple of Coral Trout which were delicious we stayed there for 2 nights. On the second day we had the company of two local sailors from Geraldton, who boarded Magic and shared a couple of Beers and several fishing tales, I'm sure they only came to check out how big our Coral Trout were.

We then returned to Geraldton the conditions were perfect for a day sail and we knew there was another front heading our way, we were forced to stay in Geraldton for 3 days due to strong wind warnings, and wouldn't you know it, once again our friendly Dolphin joined us and escorted us back into our pen.

We had plans to sail to Kalbarri after Geraldton, we have since decided to bypass Kalbarri and head out to the Northern Group of The Abrolhos Islands on route to South Passage, we are between two islands at the moment one is called Pigeon Island and the other is Little Pigeon the fishing here is something else, yesterday the Buxom Wench caught 3 very nice sized fish, 2 Paled Chined Groper, and 1 Spotted Cod, whilst the Fearless Captain Ganghook was in fears battle welding the Fish Scaler the Spotted Cod jumped of the Sugar Scoop and disappeared.

Whilst on route to the Northern Group of Islands we came apron a pod of dolphins around 14 of them they stayed and played with us for about 3 hours it was incredible, we sat up on the bow whilst they were jumping and diving all around us. They were so spectacular we had to force ourselves to stay out of the water. We have also had the pleasure of seeing the "Leeuwin" in full sail as she has been cruising the high seas, Captain Ganghook wanted to board and take over the ship but sadly as darkness was descending upon us we decided to leave that adventure for another day.

After purchasing my Winnie the Pooh PJ's I decided that they needed some new apparel I.e. "SHOES" that's right a girl can never have enough shoes, naturally we had to do a feasibility study on the grip of the sole and I now have a very stylish pair of "Once white canvas shoes" they are now home to my artistic flare , one RED & one GREEN, due to my confusion of left and right at crucial moments in time, I have a lovely Port Glass painted on one and an very large Star on the other, they look great, I shall match them up with my PJ's on our next night passage, which is only a day or two away as we are now waiting for the front to come through so we can make the 24hour sail up to South Passage.

Wednesday 9 June

Capt Ganghook and Brooksy arrived in Denham on the 26th parallel (the southern point of the Pilbara) this evening after a pleasant if relatively windless day in Shark Bay. They delayed the rape and pillage of the town till Thursday as they were tired after a long day's sail.

We have been en-route to Shark bay for the last few days. Departed Geraldton Wednesday last for Wallaby Group in north Abrolhos Islands. The biggest islands in the group. Anchored inside Long Island on Wed nite and had a moderate easterly. Both Pigeon and LPI are heavily populated by Cray fishermen during the season (March to June).

Shallow hard bottom difficult to anchor in but we had a friendly neighbourhood diver who came to check our anchors. Yes, we set the second anchor due to wx report of 40K with showers. Stayed for a single day and night of moderate winds and rain and left on the tide the next day after catching a couple of pale chinned gropers for dinner. A beautiful westerly at 20k. 140 NM passage to South Passage overnight. Fantastic winds all day and most of the night. Not quite a reach but just "cracked" sheets. Moon full and glowing. Very few clouds. Ran out of breeze in the morning and faffed about looking for a land breeze till 8. Finally found a northerly which lasted till mid morning. Motor sailed for a few hours.

Fantastic colored cliffs along this part of the coast. The Zuydorp Cliffs. Named by one of the survivors of the Batavia wreck and the subsequent open boat voyage to the Spice Islands. Sandstone with limestone capping. Lotsa caves, blowholes and stuff. Waves crashing 2 to 300 ft into the air (and above the cliffs at times). Sunset on the cliffs as we entered South Passage across the outer bar and past Monkey rock to Sheltered Bay for the night. Black as, by the time Brooksy dropped the anchor in 7 metres of clear warm (24) water. Awoke to the sight of the beach a mile inshore and had cleansing swim, followed by a walk on the beach and identifying some of the best camping sites in Oz. Clear water, cuttle fish, pale chinned groper, long toms, coral trout and ocky's.

Landed a couple of parrot fish for late lunch and headed for Red Cliff on Dirk Hartog Island. En route we sighted a couple of Dugongs bobbing about and once more we were escorted by dolphins to our sunset anchorage.

Landed and took control of DH Island using the phone antennae to threaten all and sundry intruders. Looked for the copper plaque but only found a bunch of pied cormorants guarding the most fantastic osprey next about 20 feet high and 8 ft diameter on a rock. Osprey were out but shags in. Oh, and the ubiquitous goats as well.

Went ashore to fish and spent some time retrieving snagged line from the reef before fishing from the dinghy. Brooksy loves the fishing and I am kept busy baiting, landing, replacing hooks as well as cleaning, etc. Had oysters and beer for lunch. Always need to remember the sharpened screwdriver.

Once again Magic had an escort of dolphins into Denham.

We understand that the Bigpond mail box is full and will fix this today.

The Capt says that when responding to "sailmail" and "sirromc" emails please send a "new" email. Hitting the "reply" key clogs up the system as the original mail is also resent and takes time and power (fuel) to receive.

Off to Monkey Mia tomorrow to see the famous dolphins on the beach.
Keep up the hard work and happy responses.

our love
Chris & Daun Morris